6 The World Protests study was conducted by a research team supported by Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung and the Initiative for Policy Dialogue and Global Social Justice Program at Columbia University that has examined 1085 episodes of protest from 2006 to the present, reflecting tens of thousands of individual protest events, in 100 countries representing more than 93 percent of world population. The research compiles information from news reports available online in Arabic, English, French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish on why people are protesting, who is protesting, where, against whom, and what methods they are using to protest. The objective of the study has been to document and analyze protest trends globally, regionally, and according to country income levels and to present the main grievances and demands of protesters to better understand the drivers of social unrest. This brief puts a spotlight on protests in 2021 and 2022, a dynamic two years in which approximately 200 new episodes of protest emerged and in which many episodes from previous years continued, most of them of multiple years in duration. By looking at episodes rather than individual protest events, the authors aim to reveal the unique sets of grievances and demands that drive prolonged episodes of protest. In the analysis, protest episodes are weighted by duration. “Freedom Convoy” against anti vaccine mandates escalated to anti-government protests when the police moved in to shut it down. South Asia In South Asia, protests have been on the rise starting 2019 with no signs of slowdown. The magnitude and visibility of protests has become more significant, drawing more media attention than before(e.g, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Nepal). The main issues driving these protests include demands for improved political representation(e.g., Pakistan), civil rights(e.g., Bangladesh), as well as calls for economic justice(e.g., India), or all of the above at the same time in the case of the omnibus protests in Sri Lanka. South Asia is home to some of the largest protests in history in terms of number of protesters, most notably the 250 million farmer mobilization that has seen the Modi government abandon reforms on agricultural pricing. The companion website for these studies is https://worldprotests.org/. Sub-Saharan Africa The 2022 Palgrave Macmillan e-book presenting a detailed examination of protests between 2006-2020, “World Protests: A study of key protest issues in the 21 st Century” can be downloaded for free. Executive summaries of the book in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish can be downloaded here. As the cost-of-living crisis shot to the forefront of economic news in 2022, so did protests related to prices across the continent. The main issue has shifted from food prices to fuel and energy prices(e.g., South Africa, Madagascar, Uganda and Ghana). Additionally, a new wave of anti-colonial protests has emerged, targeting the colonial nature of relationships with Europe and the rest of the world. These protests have been both local(e.g., Congo and Mali) and global(Francophone Africa and Commonwealth nations with some demonstrations in support in France and the UK respectively). Demands range from the removal of foreign military troops to the recognition of past and ongoing colonial crimes. Anti-imperialist protests have always been present on the continent, but the focus on colonial ties and roots is more marked than ever before. Global Global protests have continued to be expressions of solidarity with oppressed or war-torn regions(e.g., in support of Ukraine, for freedom of speech in Egypt, and against the war in Ethiopia, the electoral practices in Nicaragua, and the escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict). The movements also continued to address issues of global concern like climate justice, inequality, and the rise of citizen surveillance. Protests in solidarity with people who continue to suffer under forms of systemic violence have also gone global, starting with MeToo and Black Lives Matter and expanding into a renewed wave of anticolonial protests in Africa and the Caribbean. Protests occur in all country income groups(Figure 5). In 2021 and 2022, protest episodes increased in every region. This increase can be attributed to a number of factors, including the economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, rising costs of living, and government restrictions on civil liberties. Despite these challenges, demands for real democracy remain at the forefront of many protests, with different income groups having their own unique priorities when it comes to other demands.